Various arrangements have been suggested over the years to provide low cost shipping and displaying devices that can be assembled and disassembled when needed. Most of these devices can be used for shipping, storing and ultimately displaying items at the point-of-sale. They are often used in conjunction with pallets, for instance wooden pallets, to facilitate their handling using a forklift or a similar apparatus. The devices provide one or more shelves on which the items are put before shipping. They provide an alternative to the stacking of the items over one another, which is not always appropriate or even possible. Some items, for instance fresh cut flowers or plants, to name just a few, cannot be stacked as regular boxes. Shipping and displaying devices are thus very useful for transporting and handling a wide range of items.
While many existing devices have proved to be very useful and handy, none were found to be entirely satisfactory for various reasons. There are continuous challenges in the design of these devices, such as the reduction of the assembly time, the reduction of the number of required parts and the reduction of the overall complexity of the assembly, particularly when specialized tools and/or workers with specialized skills are needed for assembling a device. Increasing the loading capacity of the devices and reducing the costs of the materials are also generally among the challenges. Still, optimizing the finger space can be another example of a challenge. The finger space can be broadly defined as the distance from the top of the items on one layer and the underside of the shelf that is immediately above. Maximizing the finger space when the device is also used to display the items at the point-of-sale will help the customers in finding and retrieving the items they want to buy. The various challenges are often difficult to meet without conflicting with another one or creating new challenges to be solved.
Examples of shipping and displaying devices can be found for instance in FR-2582286, U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,338, U.S. Pat. No. 8,251,222, U.S. Pat. No. 8,276,743, US-2009/0038989, US-2010/0187226, US-2011/0011312 and US-2012/0248949.
Overall, room for improvements always exists in this technical area.